Looking Outwards 03: Computational Fabrication

Iris Van Herpen is an innovative fashion designer who has dressed some of the biggest stars in Hollywood, including Lady Gaga, Solange, and Katy Perry. Her designs are unique because she is constantly creating new materials and pushing the boundary of what fashion is. The collection I’m looking at is “Shift Souls,” which she unveiled in January, 2019 during Paris Fashion Week. The specific piece I’ll be talking about is “Cellchemy” face jewelry that was created in collaboration with Delft University of Technology.

I admire this piece because Van Herpen is constantly trying to reinvent the definition of fashion, and the piece is not only beautiful, but extremely intriguing when you realize what’s behind it. They used Grasshopper 3D to develop a generative design process based off of a 3D face scan, which was then combined with color information. This mapped a structure which resembled the face and worn as a mask. Van Herpen’s vision for this collection was based around advancements in DNA engineering which created the first human/animal hybrid. She confronts the unclear implications of the reality that we now have to address. The idea is manifested in “Cellchemy,” because the mask represents hybridity by creating lace-like masks of the human face that look animalistic.